2008 Phillies - Where are they now? (Infielders)

2008, of course, was a big year for the Phillies. They made the playoffs for the 2nd consecutive year and, better yet, won the World Series. They would go on to a lose in the 2009 World Series and again reach the playoffs in 2010 and 2011. With the departures of Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley this year. There aren't many left from that 2008 team.

Carlos Ruiz - Catcher

2008 Topps Chrome #77

2015 Topps Heritage #57

Ruiz is only one of two players left from the 2008 team. He was in his second year as the Phillies regular catcher (catching 115 games) but didn't have much offensive impact during the regular season, hitting just .219 with one home run. But the playoffs were a different story. He hit .313 against the Dodgers in the NLCS and .375 against the Rays in the World Series with one home run. In 2015, Ruiz isn't even the regular catcher (appearing in only 79 games) and he's only hitting .219 again. His best season was 2012 when he hit .325 with 16 home runs and an All-Star berth.

Ryan Howard - 1st Base

2008 Topps T205 #10

2015 Stadium Club #199

The Big Piece is the only other 2008 Phillie still with the team. In 2008, Howard lead the league with 48 home runs and 146 rbi. He hit .300 in the NLCS and .286 in the World Series with 3 home runs. After being injured for large parts of the 2011 and 2013 seasons, Howard is not the offensive player he once was. In 2015 he's batting .228 with only 21 home runs. He also has an enormous contract ($25,000,000/year currently) and 2 years to go on his contract.

Chase Utley - Second Base

2008 Sweet Spot #24

2015 Topps #163

In 2008, Chase was in the prime of his career. He played in 159 games, hit .292 with 33 home runs and 104 rbi. He was also an All-Star. He had a great NLCS hitting .353 but tailed off considerably in the World Series. He has lost a lot of playing time since with various leg injuries. For the Phillies in 2015 he was batting only .217 with 5 home runs in 73 games before the Phillies traded him to the Dodgers for John Richy (minors) and Darnell Sweeney.

Jimmy Rollins - Short Stop

2008 UD Masterpieces #70

2015 Topps #659

J-Roll was coming off an MVP season in 2008. And although he had a good 2008 season, his best years were already behind him in his 9th season. He hit .277 with 11 home runs in 2008 and also won a Gold Glove. His defensive abilities were never in question. He hit .375 in the NLDS but was pretty quiet the rest of the 2008 playoffs. In 2014, his last season with the Phillies he hit .243 with 17 home runs. He ended the 2014 season as the Phillies all time hits leader (passing Mike Schmidt) with 2,306 hits. He was traded to the Dodgers in December 2014 or Zach Eflin (minors) and Tom Windle (minors), where he is the Dodgers everyday shortstop.

Pedro Feliz - Third Base

2008 Topps Allen & Ginter #293

2011 Topps Cognac Diamond Anniversary #212

Feliz was a free agent pickup by the Phillies for the 2008 season to replace Abraham Nunez at third. Hitting .249 with 14 home runs, he was a considerable upgrade from Nunez (.234, no home runs). He hit .333 in the 2008 World Series. The Phillies released him after the 2009 season. He signed with the Astros and was then traded to the Cardinals. He retired after the 2010 season. In 2011-2012 he was playing for the Camden Riversharks and a team in the Dominican Republic. The Wikipedia trail ends there.

2015 Topps Heritage Base Card Breakdown

I can't say I'm real thrilled with 2015 Topps Heritage. For one thing, the 1966 set design was pretty dull. I bought 2 blasters, a rack box and 2 rack packs which yielded 147 different cards. Of those 147 cards I have doubles (or even triples) for 28 of them, which I think is high. I also didn't see any of the variation cards, no blue backs, no black backs, not even a lousy gum stain. For 30 cents/card, I'd expected a bit more. The rack packs yielded some of the foil cards which I'm suspending judgement on. I get 1 chrome and 1 chrome refractor. We'll let's break down this bunch of cards.

Smiling faces - 67

Howard is coming off a few rough years and injuries. Let's hope he has something to smile about this year.

 I think we'll give the best smile to Torii.

Non-smiling faces - 64

The smiling guys just edged out the frowning guys. Moustakas is the most annoyed non-smiling guy in the bunch.

Guys without hats - 20
I few years ago, Topps Heritage was over run with guys with out hats. Not so many this year.

Men with beards

Beards out numbered clean shaven by 89-66. Only a few beards were truly extravagant.

Men outstanding in their field

 8 guys just standing around with their arms crossed.

Guys with Bats/Gloves

Guys with bats just outnumbered guys with gloves 40-38.

Suspected Photoshop cards

There were 3 cards which I suspect are Photoshopped, including this one. Heyward played the entire 2014 season for the Braves. He was traded to the Cardinals last November.

Random Cards from My Collection #66

Card #41999
1998 Upper Deck #138 Dennis Eckersley

Comments on the card/player: Perhaps the ugliest subset card from the 1990s. It was called "Define the Game". The brown background, the blue tint of the player and the silver foil all add up to a massive fail. 
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Card #36002
2003 Topps 205 #315 Johan Santana

Comments on the card/player: From an ugly insert to one of my favorite sets of the 21st century.
How/When acquired: I paid $0.55 per card for a hobby box of Topps 205 Series 2 in December 2010.

Card #36724
2006 Ultra Rising Stars #4 Felix Hernandez

Comments on the card/player: This was a 20-card insert to Upper Deck's first (of two) seasons of Ultra in 2006. No question that King Felix was on the rise in 2006.
How/When acquired: I paid $0.25/card for a blaster of Ultra in June 2006.

Card #3652
1987 Donruss #83 Shane Rawley

Comments on the card/player: 1987 was Rawley's 4th season with the Phillies (80-82 for the season). He was 17-11, his best year in baseball. In his last year with the Phillies, 1988, he will be 8-16 and by the end of 1989 his ML career will be over.
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Card #36624
2012 Topps Pro Debut #205 Nolan Arenado

Comments on the card/player: Arenado was the Rockies #2 pick in 2009 and made his ML debut on 4/28/13. A 3rd baseman, he was a serious contender for Rookie of the Year on 2013. He also won a Gold Glove in his rookie season. 2014 was an even better year for him.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.30/card for 185-card hobby box of Topps Pro-Debut on eBay in January 2013.

Card #2141
1993 Topps Traded #88 Fred McGriff

Comments on the card/player: The Braves got Crime Dog from the Padres in July 1993 for basically nobody. In 5 years in Atlanta, he hit .293, with 130 home runs and 446 RBIs.
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Card #13652
2009 Topps Update #260 Ryan Howard

Comments on the card/player: Sorry, seeing a 2009 Ryan Howard card makes me choke up for what used to be.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.14/card for a hobby box on eBay in October 2009.

Card #18941
1989 Donruss #547 Hensley Meulens

Comments on the card/player: Meulens had a career that spanned 10 years (1989-1998, only 7 actually in the majors) in which he played in 182 games.
How/When acquired: This card (in fact a whole box of 1989 Donruss) was part of a large box of baseball related items I paid $50 for at a church bazaar in October 2009.

Card #19899
2010 Topps 206 #172 Kid Elberfeld

Comments on the card/player: Not one of Topps' better retro sets. Elberfeld was an infielder who played from 1898 to 1914. Elberfeld was know as "The Tabasco Kid" because he seems to have been an out of control hot-head.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.45/card for 3 48-card blasters at Target in September 2010.

Trade with the Night Owl

A few months ago, Greg at The Night Owl blog, published this card to his Twitter feed.

2004 Bowman Chrome Autographs #338 Jason Hirsh

He's a guy most of you haven't heard of but it's an Astro card with an on-card auto. I didn't have any of the auto cards from this set.  So we arranged a trade. I sent him this cool card:

2013 Topps Chrome Chrome Connections Die Cuts Matt Kemp

and two 2014 A&G Dodgers for the Hirsh and 2 2014 A&G Phillies.

Hirsh didn't have much of a career but no one can say he wasn't a gamer. After spending the 2006 season with the Astros, he ended up with the Rockies in 2007 and 2008. In his first start of 2007, J. J. Hardy hit a line drive off Hirsh's right shin. Hirsch retrieved the ball and threw Hardy out at first. He also pitched 6 more innings and won the game. That doesn't sound too unusual except the the ball off his shin broke his leg. After the 2008 season he spent the rest of his career, until 2013, in the minors trying to recover from various injuries.

In addition to the cards mentioned, I threw in a bunch of Dodger cards I didn't need and he threw in Phillies cards. One of the problems with making a blind trade like this is that I have a lot of Phillies cards and in any random selection of Phillies cards, I'm bound to have some of them. Greg, of course, has the same problem. I hope I sent him something he needed. Of what he sent, I needed 17 cards.  Here are some highlights.

1992 Score 100 Rising Stars #72 Pat Combs

I have what I think is a pretty complete list of 1990's Phillies. But this card wasn't on it.

2006 Topps #139 Jason Michaels

I also have a pretty good list of Phillies cards from 2000-2005. After that, I'm still working on it. But I know I didn't have this card. I think, however, that this is the only 2006 Topps Phillies card I needed.

2009 O-Pee-Chee #235 Feliz Perez

There is nothing too exciting about a 2009 O-Pee-Chee card but this card illustrates the value of these sorts of trades to me. I didn't know I needed this card but eventually I would. have How do you obtain a card like this except through a trade? Or maybe a card show. I think trolling eBay would be worthless.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter #165 Chase Utley

 Can't go wrong with this card.

2011 Topps Lineage #169 Cliff Lee

I bought 2 blasters of this product. One of them had horribly miss-cut cards. Plus, I think they are unattractive. But, of course, I still need the Phillies.

2011 Topps Lineage 1975 Mini #131 Carlos Lee

I kind of like the minis. I believe Cliff and Carlos are not related.

2012 Triple Play #63 Ryan Howard

Howard has been one of my favorite Phillies for the past 6-7 years but he's having such a bad year in 2014, that was been benched for few games recently.

2013 Topps Opening Day #217 Carlos Ruiz

Greg sent 5 cards from this set I needed. Here's a funny thing that happens often while I'm working with my cards and watching the Phillies on TV. As I was uploading this card, there was a pop-up at the plate which Ruiz had to make a long run for but dropped the ball. Right behind him was Howard.

2013 Topps Opening Day Mascots Phillie Phanatic

Who doesn't like the Phanatic? That was a rhetorical question.

Here are the two 2014 Topps Allen & Ginter Phillies that were a part of the trade.